One foot into the grave
by Crucifix HiME
Summary: AU. A rash decision from Tsuna changes his thread of destiny whilst Reborn's bad end is just a little less lonely.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters just the idea.

* * *

 **One foot into the grave**

The mafia is in a state of panic. Nono's three sons are dead. Iemitsu's wife is dead and his son was reported missing shortly after. Despite all of that, Vongola needs an heir. It is with a heavy heart that he orders Iemitsu to have another child since he himself is incapable of impregnating a woman at his old age.

...the woman is currently four months along.

Tsuna sits next to a dual eyed male as they watch with disdain as the poor excuse for a woman beats the maids for so much as looking at her the wrong way. "The Vongola has sunken to new lows to have to do this." The male commented.

Tsuna just face palmed, "I was only gone for a little and this is what happens!" he moaned pitifully, "What is wrong with Nono, that idiota Iemitsu is still young! He could run Vongola himself, not toss an innocent baby to do something he could have done himself…!"

"Kufufu~ Or you could step up and save your step-sibling the trouble of inheriting?" he suggests deviously.

Tsuna gave his accomplice, one Rokudo Mukuro a dry look. "I would absolutely love to." He mutters sarcastically, "Except I'd rather die than have Reborn as a tutor."

"That's awfully cowardly of you." Mukuro sniped.

Tsuna laughed quietly, "Yeah, I guess so." He mumbles incoherently so Mukuro doesn't hear his next words, "But I won't be able to run from him anymore soon enough…"

* * *

Mukuro stared after his savior worriedly as he jumped off the edge of the window and landed with catlike grace into an alley way. Tsuna had saved him and two others from torturous experimentation when he was but a child and also took care of them no matter how much they tried to push or scare him away. To make him show his true colors, to use and abuse them. He proved their thoughts of him wrong and now, after all these years it was their turn to worry and badger over him. Mukuro had the sneaking suspicion that if they so much as looked away for too long the small brunet would fade out of existence taking every last shred of hope they ever held for a safe life.

The mafia isn't something you can really run away from, only death can truly free you. And honestly he doesn't want that kind of freedom. Not for Ken, not for Chikusa and certainly not for himself.

To Mukuro, Tsunayoshi is standing on the edge of a precipice with a serene smile and his hands clasped into prayer.

Mukuro wonders to whom Tsunayoshi prays to save his life…because it couldn't have been to god.

* * *

Two years before…

The first time Reborn catches sight of Iemitsu's long lost son. He sees him slitting the throat of some bastard who'd been raping young girls for kicks. Tsuna doesn't have a drop of blood on his person and he doesn't do anything to say that he'd done it because the man had done him ill. He did it because he wanted to. He did it because he was train to.

When Reborn first saw Tsuna, he sees a potential Hitman with a darkness buried within expressive honeyed eyes.

And he lets him go. Because Reborn hadn't known who Sawada Tsunayoshi was.

* * *

One year four months before…

The second time he sees Tsuna he's with three other males. They follow after the brunet with a fierce protectiveness that rivals the type of person who is about to lose the person they care for most. Reborn straightens immediately and analyzes the son of the Young Lion in alarm. Before he can actually _look_ at the brunet, the kid wearing the beanie with a bar code tattooed onto his cheek is blocking his view, and Tsuna is no longer there.

He curses under his breath all the way to Vongola mansion to report his sighting of the young brunet. Nono is ecstatic, Iemitsu is depressed. He orders his men to find and retrieve Sawada Tsunayoshi. Reborn suddenly feels a tad bit apprehensive when he finds himself on a team to find the teen.

* * *

Eleven months before…

The third time he sees Tsuna, Reborn and the brunet makes eye contact. At first Reborn is entranced until he finds himself disturbed by the almost dead look buried under layers of honey.

A few seconds later Reborn finds himself shooting a tree into oblivion and beyond because he carelessly let himself be distracted enough to lose sight of him.

* * *

Four months before…

The fourth time Reborn sees him, Nono is ready to call off the search.

Tsuna just smiles cheekily at him. Him, the World's Greatest Hitman, who strikes fear into the hearts of Mafiosi everywhere even in the form of a pint sized pip-squeak. Tsuna walks right up to him. He has a companion Reborn distantly notes, as a dual eyed teen glares bloody murder at him, a few tables away.

Reborn is currently at a café having been dismissed and having no orders to capture the teen on sight, should he come across him. Tsuna just sits across from him with a smile, the smile does not reach his eyes.

They do not speak a word to each other.

* * *

Birth.

The fifth time he sees Tsuna is at the new born Vongola heir's homecoming. How he got into the mansion was beyond Reborn but he doesn't say a word when he sneaks over to his step-brother's cradle and peer into it. At first, Reborn deciphers the look on the brunet's face to be similar to one meeting alien in real life. Then the look melts into something genuine and precious. Reborn stopped breathing for a beat or two as the brunet presses a loving kiss onto his brother's fragile head before sneaking away as quietly as he'd came.

The baby Sawada Ieyasu screamed his little lungs out for a brother he may never see again.

* * *

Six months after…

The sixth time he sees Tsuna he is having coffee with Verde. Now Reborn doesn't know why but he's resists the urge to shoot his fellow Arcobaleno to high hell when he sees them huddled together. Tsuna's bodyguard, the dual eyed teen is smirking in amusement at his apparent frustration, who'd spotted him the moment he'd arrived.

He stays hidden and watches the table until Verde leaves and so does the bodyguard. Said bodyguard shoots Reborn distrustful looks but he doesn't care. His eyes are riveted onto the small depressed brunet cradling his cup of hot chocolate. Whatever the topic was, Verde must have shot the teen down.

The small teen is hardly surprised when Reborn is suddenly sitting next to him with a blank look. The teen understands though. That Reborn is only trying to comfort him the only was he knows how.

They don't exchange any words this time either.

* * *

Two years and eleven months after…

The seventh time Reborn sees Tsuna he is devastated. He does not show it, but he slowly feels as if his world is falling apart.

They meet after a particularly tough battle against a rival famiglia, all six Arcobaleno are gathered in the aftermath. All depressed after learning of Aria's passing when all of a sudden…

On the right shoulder of the dual eyed male is a baby. And not just any baby either, this baby has an orange pacifier. And he is the current Sky Arcobaleno.

Standing inconspicuously behind the duo was someone whom Reborn wanted nothing more to tear limb from limb.

The man in the iron hat. Checkerface.

He comes with a message for the other Arcobaleno and the new one.

"After your newest Sky passes away. I will not have a need for you all anymore, you all will die with him. Nothing you say or do will change your fates or fates of the next bearers of the pacifiers. This will be the last you see of me." His voice fades as does his form.

* * *

A few months later…

Reborn doesn't have to worry about when next he'd see Tsuna. He is always nearby these days. Since he always tend to break into Vongola, they always seem run into each other.

Today too, Reborn boldly struts into the nursery where his new Sky and the little Ieyasu are curled up next to each other. The three year old blond is already fast asleep when Reborn sits next to Tsuna. The brunet gives the hitman a feeble but genuine smile.

They're both pale with death on the horizon.

But they have a few more years left to suffer. Tsuna wants to there for Ieyasu in his young life as a mental support but he also wants to be by the side of his friends and his new Guardians. Reborn and the others knew that he was stretching himself thin. But they were selfish and Tsuna was willing.

Reborn was the only one to not ask for anything of the sickly brunet. He'd just find the other and sit quietly next to him and that was more than enough. Every now and then they'd chat or go on a mission together. But it always ended up with Reborn and Tsuna arguing till they're both blue in the face.

Mafiosi everywhere marvel over the fact that someone is even able to rile Reborn up and get away unscathed. Tsuna just thinks Reborn is being an over protective idiot.

"Reborn, I'm sorry." He suddenly croaks into the comfortable silence.

The apology startles the hitman so badly he tears up a little. A hand as small as his own worms its way into his hold and he rests his head onto the other's shoulder.

"Don't apologize for something you can't help Tsuna…" Reborn mutters.

* * *

Sometimes, Reborn sees Tsuna somewhere dangerous and in a place he can't reach, but now, he stands right beside his Sky in the same place. Reborn patiently waits to fall. Because after all, they already have one foot into the grave, so why not take the plunge with a Sky that won't leave him behind.

* * *

Thirteen years ago…

Tsuna sat with a forlorn twist of pouty lips. Honey brown eyes watching as children his age all laughed and played together on the playground. Peals of laughter and subtle chatter stir the air.

While Tsuna sat by his lonesome on the swing set. For some reason the other kids all avoided him. He wondered why. And he never knew why until his dear mother was brutally murdered right in front of him and was left in the foster system. He figures it out on his own.

Not two days within the system and he'd already started being picked on and abused. After three weeks, Tsuna runs off trying to dodge a group of older boys when he meets a white haired onii-chan in a secluded antique shop. A glint and a mysterious smile later, the onii-chan offers to take his suffering away, but only if he accepts a request when he is older and stronger.

Tsuna doesn't bother to think twice.

 **END.**


End file.
